I'm trying to write up a short history about the Beta Epsilon chapter at the University of Montana which was disestablished some time ago (some time after the 50s but before the 90s is all I know). Does anyone know a Montana alumnus or know how I'd find out information about this chapter? (e.g. date of founding, disestablishment, why disestablished, location of facility, any notable members, any particular accomplishments of that chapter, etc.)

Beta Epsilon was installed n March 27th, 1937 and was closed in 1993. The chapter initiated 723 members. I know that prior to becoming Theta Chi, the chapter was a part of another national that merged with another organization; Theta Chi picked up the Montana chapter. Sorry I can't recall the name of the former organization--it believe it was associated with the Freemasons/DeMolay and is referenced in the "Fraternities that are no more" section of Bairds.

I'm glad you're documenting the history and glad to help. I'm curious about your interest.

I'm part of the alumni Greek task force that is trying to rebuild Greek at Montana's campus. Part of our effort is to send a newsletter 3-4x/yr and in each issue, I try to feature a different Greek group, either current or disestablished. I don't know how many Theta Chi gentlemen are on our mailing list -- my guess is not many since it was disestablished some time ago. But if there's someone from national/HQ or at the district/regional level who would like to be looped into what we're trying to do (in case there's ever interest in returning to UM), please PM me. Thanks!

It closed for financial reasons. Basically not enough members. Even when i was a member in the early 1980's there were just barely enough members to pay the bills even with the members doing all of the cooking.

The house was a tri delta house before it was a theta chi house. At least that is what they taught us when we became members.

I attended the University of Montana, from Sept. 1984 through June 1987. At the time I pledged the brotherhood membership was down to three brothers, and one pledge who had been held over from the previous quarter's pledge class (we were on the quarter system at that time).

My pledge class had six members, and the following two quarters also had five to six members each. For whatever reason, at the end of the school year several brothers decided that UM wasn't the best choice for them, and so either transferred to other schools, or dropped out of college totally. By the time I graduated we had reached something like 15-20 brothers (as I recollect). Unfortunately, as new brothers would be initiated, others would leave, and so we never really gained a huge amount of traction in numbers.

A couple of years later I came back to visit Missoula. The chapter had around 12-15 brothers by then. Sometime later I heard through the grape vine that Beta Epsilon was going to go inactive. After several long phone calls to alumni living in Missoula, it seems the number of brothers had dwindled to a little over a handful, and it just wasn't financially, nor socially, sustainable.

I think it's worth mentioning that the Greek life took a drop in popularity during the late 1980s for any of a number of reasons. In looking at the list of current active organizations, not only did Beta Epsilon close, but also gone are Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity, which colonized UM September 1984, as well as Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity. The only Greek organization not at UM when I attended is Kappa Sigma.

As Wolfman Jack mentioned, the Beta Epsilon chapter house was purchased from the Tri-Delt Sorority. A little factoid is that this is the house where Evel Knievel rode his motorcycle up the inside stairwell to visit his girlfriend of the time! After going inactive, the chapter house was sold or leased to Alpha Tau Omega. The UM map doesn't show it as a Greek house now, so I'm assuming that 501 University Avenue is no longer in the Greek system.

Hope that helps some, though I know you were looking for info over four years ago.